Instagram features
Instagram trends are changing promptly, and so are the Instagram features that you can use. Here are some you might of missed.
1 – Add music to picture posts
Do you think that audio can only be added to videos? That was in the past.
Instagram now lets you make your still photo posts (sadly, not carousel ones yet) more lively by adding background music. This means that besides seeing who you were with via the ‘tagged people’ feature & where you take the photo via location, your followers can now also know your favourite songs and vibe with your content!
Instagram NEW features; 5 that you might have missed Share on XDo you know that using trending audio also boosts your content so that it reaches more Instagram users? Let’s see in the future if this applies to image-only posts as well.
2 – Schedule posts within the Instagram app
Great news for professional account owners: you no longer need to go to a social media management tool to schedule in advance your posts. According to Instagram’s announcement, your reels, photos, and carousel posts can be scheduled within the application up to 75 days in advance.
However, there are two minus points. The first one is that this new feature does not work on Instagram Stories. Secondly, business functions like product tagging, collaborative posts, cross-posting to Facebook, sponsored posts, fundraisers, etc. are not yet supported on scheduled Posts or Reels.
3 – Non-cut Instagram Stories (within 60 seconds)
Do you ever feel angry seeing your 1-min footage being cut into 4 chunks on Stories as Instagram only allowed 15 seconds per story segment? Not anymore! You are now able to upload/watch a full 60-second Stories video without it being interrupted. Now you don’t have to mention your friends or add stickers/links again and again after every 15 seconds. Handy!
Do not forget there are some great tools out there to make your Instagram Stories videos fabulous.
4 – Hide Instagram likes and view counts
To minimize the pressure that causes anxiety among 43% of teenagers with low social-emotional well-being, Instagram decided to give the option to hide likes and view counts. That’s why on most Instagram posts nowadays, you only see a few usernames together with “and others” under the like/view section. Of course, if hiding likes is not your thing, you can turn off this feature anytime in advanced settings.
5 – Reels achievements
To end this Instagram wrap-up, let’s get familiar with a new gamification term: Reel achievements.
This new add-on, introduced in October 2022, is designed to increase the number of videos on the platform. Instagram now enables badges to reward users’ active contributions. However, these badges are only visible to them, not to their followers.
For now, you can unlock four achievements as a Reel creator:
- Collaborator: Remix a reel or collaborate with other users using Instagram Collabs.
- Community builder: Use interactive stickers in your Reels, such as poll, slider, or quiz.
- Creative streak: Upload two or more reels within a week.
- Trendspotter: Use trending music or effect in your reel.
Instagram has now joined the world of gamification with badges for video makers. Which platform is going to do it next, and on which categories? LinkedIn? Twitter? Well, let’s wait and see 😉.
- How Gamification is Revolutionizing Social Media Engagement – By Hang Vu - May 3, 2025
- Instagram features; 5 that you might have missed - January 1, 2023